While Tsubaki was working on her latest trial, Dana was hard at work on her own project. Given the events of the most recent invasion, there was a serious need to increase both her own power and that of the world around her. For her own power, that was easy, and she already had her familiars working on that. The hard part was how to increase the overall level of the world.

“I can’t create a system that will mass produce legends, since every legend has to be unique to its wielder.” Dana muttered to herself as she sat in her office, typing at her terminal. Although there was the distinct possibility that many future threats would originate from the void, she couldn’t overlook the fact that monster gods exist, as did common criminals.

The hardest part of her plan was how to increase the world’s power without that power simply being used by villains to oppress people. It was not even remotely possible for her to act like the hammer of justice, and punish villains across the various worlds.

“If I make an item that focuses purely on defense, it will be harder for bad guys to use it to attack people… but they could just use it to defend against the police as they run away.” Dana grunted, holding her head in her hands. No matter what sort of control mechanism or regulations she thought of, she could always find ways for people to work around them.

Dana took a deep breath, leaning back in her seat. “Okay… let’s look at this from a different angle. I’m not wanting to make the strong stronger. I just want to make a way for people who are weak to defend themselves.”

With that thought in mind, she didn’t need to make a weapon that would be viable against the police, as the police had plenty of their own tools to deal with high-powered individuals. What she needed to do instead was to make something that could be mass produced as easily as a standard spell card from Deckan. Well… as easily as the spell cards before V-Day were produced.

“The damage output needs to be the equivalent of a full-power strike from a level… let’s go with a three hundred and fifty mage. High enough that it can do serious damage, but not enough that standard law enforcement won’t be able to overcome it.” As Dana muttered to herself, she began drawing up various plans. “And it has to be a focused attack, not something that will cause collateral damage, too.”

Dana thought about designing the weapon in a variety of forms, from a blade to a wand or even a firearm. However, none of them evoked the image that she was trying to portray. So, instead, she changed the direction that she was working again. She fashioned the item as an accessory, a black bracelet with a blue gem.

Naturally, the gem was a Mage Heart crystal, the power source of the bracelet. “I’ll need it to react to incoming dangers as well, and form a protective barrier.”

Thinking about this, Dana began writing a spell on her terminal. This would be the most complex spell that she had created since she made Gerard. Each bracelet needed to be a pseudo-sentient spell capable of analyzing the surroundings. Whenever it detected something that would threaten the wielder, it would deploy a preset defensive spell. Likewise, when manually activated by the wielder, it would launch a concentrated offense.

Dana’s plan was to limit the mana cost while it was in its ‘passive’ mode, that way even a child would be able to supply it with the mana necessary. As for its active mode, it would only function with the energy supplied by the Mage Heart to prevent someone from abusing its effect. It was only meant to be used in an emergency, after all.

Unfortunately, the actual design work for a fourth-tier spell of this magnitude would take… a considerable amount of time to finish.

“Here it is.” A voice spoke up as a portal opened onto a desolate world, its surface covered in a metallic layer. From the portal, a human man in a white lab coat emerged, carrying a clipboard in one hand. Behind him was a similarly dressed elven woman, her hands at her sides as she surveyed the landscape.

“Are you sure that this is the place?” She asked, the man nodding his head.

“According to the latest charts we could recover from before V-Day, this is the planet that they were using.” He said, though his eyes swept the surroundings as well. “It would appear that they had not been spared the cruelty of the event.”

“That much was obvious before we came. There’s been no word from him in fifty years. Check the area, and see if you can find any traces. I want the results in front of me within an hour.”

The man let out a sigh, nodding his head. His figure blurred, turning into blue light that swept into the horizon. Wherever he passed, a faint light scanned over the ground, seeming to be scanning beneath the surface.

The woman waited impatiently, tapping her heel against the metal ground. She knew that it would take time even for a sentient spell to scan through an entire planet to look for traces of a dead civilization. Thus, she forced herself to wait for an hour.

At the end of the hour, blue light swept back from the horizon again, reforming into the scientist that had left. He held two devices, one in each hand. “These are the only traces that I could find, stored in a safe that was isolated from all outside influences. It was truly a remarkable storage device.”

The woman looked down at the items. One was a black cube, the other seeming to be some form of remote. When she saw the remote, however, her brow twitched. She let out a long sigh, looking up at the man before her. “Are you enjoying your new body?” She asked in a flat tone, causing the man to blink.

“Pardon?”

“You can drop the act. Whether or not you’ve possessed him, it doesn’t matter to me. However, I am familiar enough with his mana wavelength to determine when there is a discrepancy.”

The man paused, before letting out a faint grunt, his brown eyes turning red. “In that case… I should ask what brings you here, I suppose? With how long it has been, surely you have not also come to threaten me?”

The woman perked a brow at that. “You have a brilliant mind. If there was anything left of you, I wanted to bring it back to continue research. I didn’t expect you to leave a backup of your mind that could override the personality matrix for a magical intelligence.”

“I don’t know what happened while I was sealed, but I can take a guess, looking around.” He said with a long sigh. “I suppose it was some form of anti-technology attack?”

“Quite.” The woman confirmed simply. “All forms of technology were destroyed fifty years ago. We lost contact with you when that happened, so everyone has been operating under the assumption that your mechanical parts malfunctioned in the attack.”

“Perhaps. It was the folly of my old form to hold onto the domains attached to my mechanical body. Had I created an energy form such as this, it would have spared me the trouble. Thankfully, I created this backup with just such a purpose. I had been stuck at the final step, due to the limits of the device I saved myself in. When your… ‘friend’ found me, I was able to imprint myself upon him.”

The scientist gave a brief nod. “As I said, whether or not you have replaced him does not bother me. We can restart a fresh version of him when we return.”

The spell entity raised his brow, looking at the woman. “I have lost my people, my home, and quite frankly my life. Why are you so confident that I will return with you?” While he was still hesitant to attack this woman due to the threats of the ones who had visited him before, there was no reason for him to subject himself to her whims.

The woman gave a small smirk. “You’re free to leave if you want. However, to ensure that the magical intelligence didn’t go out of control, it was created with certain restrictions. First, it is incapable of creating advanced fourth-tier spells, and can only use the ones we have programmed into it. Secondly, it does not possess its own mana core, and requires regular infusions of Mage Heart to maintain itself.”

The former head of research for the Geer widened his eyes slightly, gritting his teeth. “So, you plan to blackmail me to join you back at your lab?”

“Blame yourself for claiming the wrong host.” The woman said, turning around to walk back to the portal.

The man gave an eerie smile. “You’re right.” He said, aiming the remote at her. Now that she had said so much, he had established that he was acting in defense of himself. “I should upgrade.”

The woman looked back, not seeming to know what he meant. There was a flash as he pressed the button on the remote, the magical intelligence fading away. A metallic clink echoed out as the remote and black cube fell to the floor.

The female scientist hung her shoulders, frozen for several long moments. When she moved, her eyes flashed red. A long groan echoed from her mouth as she cracked her neck from side to side. “Ugh… an organic body. I’ll need to take care of the upgrades soon.” She said with a grin.

The scientist looked at the open portal, closing her eyes and letting her eyes return to their normal brown. With that out of the way, she stepped through the portal, leaving the devices behind.

On the other side, there was a man with swept back black hair, thin glasses on his face. “Did you find him?” He asked, without looking up from his terminal.

The woman shook her head. “Unfortunately, there was nothing left, other than a few security measures. Jax was destroyed by a null magic turret that activated while we were there.”

“I see… I’ll have another one initiated in the morning. In that case, you are dismissed.” The man said, lightly waving his hand to dismiss her. The woman offered a respectful bow, turning to leave the room.

Tsubaki let out a deep breath when she opened her eyes, seeing the light peeking in beneath the closed door. She still had two targets to take out, and needed to find a new weapon to use to do it. The police station would have been looted long ago. Most likely, all of the powerful weapons will be in the hands of survivors and Stalkers…

With that thought in mind, Tsubaki felt her arm, glad that it had regained its mobility, even if it was still sore. She had to go hunting for a different type of prey now, in order to get what she needed to take on much larger targets.